DCI sets eyes on two KPA officials for aiding tax evasion in Mombasa

Two senior managers at Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) risk being interdicted for cargo smuggling and tax evasion.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) wants the two officers to step aside saying they are the prime suspects in aiding and abetting smuggling of containers out of the Mombasa port to private container freight stations (CFS).

The duo are said to be behind a syndicate working in cahoots with rogue freight stations to deny the port revenue.

The DCI has advised Treasury to act on the two KPA officers; Sudi Amani Mwasinago (general manager, port operations) and Evans Akuvana (acting principal officer, ship operations), at the Mombasa port.

The two linked to what the DCI calls a syndicate of rogue officers working in cahoots with importers and some container freight stations to divert cargo containers from the port to private CFS.

The DCI in his letter to Treasury after preliminary investigations indicated there exists a deliberate illegal activity of container smuggling and tax evasion executed by port managers.

The DCI wants Treasury to compel the two officers to step aside warning that they are the prime suspects and bear the greatest responsibility according to evidence gathered so far and that their continued stay in office would comprise investigations.

Treasury has been recording low turn over from the Kenya ports. This as Kenya Railways tasked with handling and ferrying cargo from Mombasa has also been recording reduced cargo hauled in the recent past.

Data obtained from Kenya Railways indicates that while initially cargo hauled by the Standard Gauge Railways (SGR) oscillated on an average of seven trains per day.

Between January to May 2021, the SGR cargo trains made between 7-8 trips or trains per day.

This number allegedly dipped between June and August where only an average of between 5-6 trains per day would make the trip to Nairobi from Mombasa port.

The reduction in cargo hauled caught the attention of the Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani who summoned all port stakeholders including Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Kenya Railways to a meeting at Treasury to discuss the decrease in volume of cargo hauled by KRC.

The DCI was invited to probe the underhand dealings within the port. With investigations going on at the port, the cargo hauled jumped back to at least 7 cargo trains per day from September 2021.